As I briefly mentioned on the blog on Friday, my friend Laurel arrived in town on Thursday and stayed with us through Saturday afternoon which was so, so wonderful. I miss her tons and having some quality, uninterrupted time with one of my best friends was such a treat. Laurel is one of the most thoughtful people I know and was so great about wanting to spend time with Chase during her visit as well. Chase absolutely LOVED every second with Laurel and has been asking for updates on Miss Laurel’s whereabouts ever since she left!
Laurel and I spent most of Friday with Chase and walked to a local park, played by the lake and hung out close to home until Ryan arrived home from work and we headed out for some one-on-one time. A pedicure and Thai food sounded like a relaxing way to spend our Friday night so that’s just what we did and it was perfect.
Saturday
Laurel was down for some family fun on Saturday morning and after a big pancake breakfast, joined me, Ryan and Chase at Discovery Place in Charlotte for a morning at the science museum. Discovery Place (not to be confused with Discovery Place Kids – another local favorite) is an interactive museum with varying exhibitions so it’s also oddly entertaining for adults, too!
Since Laurel’s flight left in the early afternoon, we ran out of time to explore too much more of Charlotte like we initially hoped but still had a great Saturday morning together. Eventually it was time for me to drop Laurel off at the airport before driving back home to hang with my crew! Chase was napping when I walked through the door, so I used his naptime to fill eggs and Easter baskets for Chase (and Ryan!) while Ryan did some yard work.
Our evening plans took us to my friend Carrie’s house for an egg hunt! Carrie and her husband Nick hosted our family and two other couples we love and their kids for a fun evening that centered around tacos, egg hunts and plenty of sweet treats.
Chase was all about the egg hunt and we had so much fun watching him run around with Lilly, Lily and Caleb as they all did their best to fill their bags with as many Easter eggs as possible. We hung out at Carrie and Nick’s until a little after 8 p.m. when all of the toddlers needed to get to bed, so we said our goodbyes and wished everyone a very Happy Easter before heading home.
Sunday
Ryan and I waffled back and forth about whether to begin Easter morning with an egg hunt or church and ended up settling on church since we figured an egg hunt would equate to Chase eating lots of candy for breakfast. We hid one golden egg in Chase’s room for him to find right when he woke up and then we all got dressed, ate breakfast and headed off to the early morning service.
(FYI the dress I’m wearing is the ruched tank dress from Nordstrom so many of us were obsessed with last year that’s flattering on basically every body type. It’s not maternity but it’s so stretchy that it accommodates a baby bump quite well!)
Once we made it back home, we told Chase the Easter bunny visited our house and he practically sprinted out the door into the front yard for our egg hunt. Chase made Easter so much fun and had us laughing as he’d hightail it past three eggs to grab one on the opposite end of our lawn and then do the same thing over and over until he spotted every egg.
With Chase’s Easter basket full of eggs, we headed back inside and told Chase to hunt in our living room for his extra-special basket from the bunny. (Hiding Easter baskets is a tradition in Ryan’s family that I love so we’re continuing it in our house, too!)
The next few hours passed by in a flash of candy, playing with new Easter goodies and egg dyeing. We attempted the Cool Whip Egg Dyeing trick that exploded all over the internet this year and it was so fun and worked surprisingly well!
Before Chase’s nap, we spent some time in the backyard and enjoyed every second of the gorgeous 70-degree weather. We filled our bird feeder (toddler entertainment GOLD), played fetch with Sadie, did a little gardening and cleaned up Chase’s water table since it was pretty gross from sitting out back all winter long. (Whoops.)
(When playtime at a water table is involved, soaked clothes are a guarantee, so Chase enjoyed a pants-free afternoon.)
We spent the rest of our Easter relatively close to home and took Sadie on a walk to a local park, fed the ducks and played on the playground before winding down and heading off to bed. I began reading I Am Watching You last night and it instantly pulled me in. I have high hopes for this one!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed some sunshine and quality time with loved ones. Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!
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Sounds like a great weekend! Glad you all enjoyed Easter.
Side note about ducks: it’s actually really harmful to feed wild ducks anything. It compromises their natural forgaging behavior that regulates their food intake, and food we humans feed them isn’t nutrient dense in the way they need. I fed ducks growing up in my hometown too but later learned how bad it is, and as a big-time bird lover, I share the new-to-me info when I can. See this link for more info and please spread the word! 🙂
https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7001.html
Hope you have a great week!
oh wow! i didn’t realize this! we used the leftover bird feed from our bird feeder so i assumed it was okay. thank you for sharing!!
What a sweet weekend! We were outside all day long yesterday too. It was just so pretty! Can’t wait to hear about that book!
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend filled with time with friends and family time.
Do you have a picture of how your eggs turned out? Never heard of this technique and would love to try next year.
So happy you had gorgeous weather to enjoy an outdoor egg hunt.
I actually didn’t take a picture of the final product but we were really impressed! I left them in the Cool Whip for a while only because the dye we used was pastel colored and not as vibrant and it still worked well. From what I’ve read online, the vinegar soak before rolling them in the Cool Whip is key!
Thanks for the tips – we will definitely try this next year!
Definitely post an update on I Am Watching You! That’s on my list! You have to read The Silent Sister…so far that’s been my favorite this year. I just finished the first Morgan Dane book (I forget the name!) it was good but it was also a little too busy. I couldn’t keep track of all of the characters/suspects. Did you read the other ones in that series? We’re they good?!
If you were on the fence with the first one in the series, I’d prob steer clear of the second (that’s the only other one I’ve read) because I definitely like the first one the most!
Were*
Auto correct is always trying to make me look like a turd. Literally my biggest grammer pet peeve I had to correct it haha
Happy Easter to you all! That last picture of Chase reminds me of a something you’d see in an old archive of photos from the 70’s or 80’s. Classic!
It’s one of my new favs of him! <3
What a lovely Easter weekend, Julie! Sounds like it was a perfect mix of time with friends and time with family. I love hiding Easter eggs around the house…or rather having the Easter Bunny hide them. We did that at my parent’s for my nephews and they were absolutely thrilled to find all of those eggs!! That is a tradition I definitely want to bring into our family once we start having children 🙂 I just love that last picture of Chase…it should totally be an ad in a magazine or something!! So adorable!! Have a great Monday! Xoxo
So…I was quite upset to learn Friday I failed my one hour glucose test and have to take the 3 hour one 🙁 So, so not looking forward to the 4 blood draws, but I just ordered Little Fires Everywhere from Amazon, so hopefully that will help. Lesson learned…don’t go in the afternoon to get blood drawn!! Looks like you had great weather for your Easter weekend. So waiting for spring to arrive in the northeast!
Aw wishing you luck with your 3-hr test and hoping the book keeps you entertained while you wait! <3 Also, if you're looking for a book that will hook you immediately and FLY by, check out final girls. that one was intense but so, so good!
Just a little thing – I think you meant to say that you, Ryan, and Chase went to discovery place on Saturday? You wrote Sadie instead of Chase. Having read your blog for so many years, I know how much Sadie is a part of your family and I thought it was a cute mix up 🙂 Glad to hear you had a lovely Easter!
HAHA! Yes! Definitely a mistake. I wish she could’ve come too!
You know you’re a parent to a child and a dog when you call one by the others name. LOL You said you were glad Lauren joined you, Ryan and Sadie…..I was wondering “where was Chase”. Not giving you a hard time at all. I have 3 boys and was in an argument with my youngest when I called him by another boys name (and it wasn’t his siblings name). My boys names are Corey, Nick and Jacob. I called Jacob, Jason……
LOL! Oops!!! I do this ALL the time aloud at home, so it’s no surprise it happened here, too. Haha! Updating the post now!
Sounds like you guys had a great Easter weekend. Having good friends come to visit is the best! I always enjoy their company so much.
Sounds like a great Easter! We had so much fun watching our girl egg hunt, it was so so sweet!!
Looks like so much fun! I never saw the cool whip egg dyeing trick…I saw the shaving cream one and don’t think it’s quite as successful…
I’ve had my eye on that dress for ages, thanks for sharing the link again!
I Am Watching You is suppppper creepy! Hope you like it!
You are brave for attempting to dye eggs! I didn’t do it- I figured a 2 1/2 year old + dying eggs would be a disaster!
Happy belated Easter! Looks like you guys had the best holiday – sometimes you just need to be with your own little family. My Easter was just me and my husband, and it was great! Relaxing and joyful.
I love all the spring activities you got involved in (bird feeders! Love them! Gardening – not good at it, but LOVE it!) You’re giving me spring fever to the max!
And I know how great it is to have a great friend home for a visit. Irreplaceable! Thanks for sharing, loved this post, as always.